The invention relates generally to rotary lawn mowers and more particularly to rotary lawn mowers including a clutch operable to engage and disengage a cutter blade with respect to a prime mover. Still more particularly, the invention relates to rotary lawn mowers in which cutter blade rotation is simultaneously braked incident to disengagement of the clutch.
Particular attention is directed to the U.S. Dowdle Pat. No. 2,985,992 issued May 30, 1961 and to the U.S. Shriver Pat. No. 3,871,159 issued Mar. 18, 1975.
Attention is also directed to the following additional prior U.S. Pat Nos.: Cavaness 2,471,367 issued May 24, 1949, Kuhary 2,685,160 issued Aug. 3, 1954, Schmidt 2,993,329 issued July 25, 1961, Sanderson 3,050,923 issued Aug. 28, 1962, Nemeth 3,247,654 issued Apr. 26, 1966, Ottosen 3,298,163 issued Jan. 17, 1967.
The invention also relates to clutch mechanisms of the type including interleaved disks or friction members.